i think i love lea salonga…

One Day More - Les Miserables (watch for a cute-as-hell Lea Salonga completely steal the show as Eponine [I think] around 2min into this clip) - (edit: apparently this is Frances Rufelle as Eponine):

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On My Own - Les Miserables (stunning magical singing from Lea at the Les Mis All-Star Concert):

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I Dreamed a Dream - Les Miserables (this is easily one of the best, if not the best, song in Les Miserables but I couldn’t find Lea on stage performing it, just this crappy TV show version):

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A Whole New World (for Disney’s ‘Alladin’ - a very young Lea getting her first big break):

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Bonus for Les Mis lovers - Master of the House (from the All-Star Concert):

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utilities disconnection tilt…

“Wow, that may have been the greatest day of my life. I love errands. They’re like mini-adventures for undesirables.”
- Karen Walker (Will & Grace)

I’m moving to Manila in a couple weeks (not going to Caribbean anymore unfortunately as we left it too late to get the flights/tickets we wanted) so I needed schedule the disconnection of all my utilities. I had to interrupt my progress through the AWESOME show that is Will & Grace to get this done - here is a sample of the awesome scriptwriting on Will & Grace (Karen and Jack are simply the best):

Jack: So we need to get them back together, but how? Pretend to think, pretend to think.
Karen: Pretend to care, pretend to care.
Jack: Oh, I’ve got it. What we need is a plan. Some way to get them in the same room together.
Karen: Oh honey, that’s genius, write that down. Oh, wait, not on that, that’s for Will and Grace, that’s an invitation to Joe and Larry’s kid’s birthday party.
Jack: Oh yeah, I got one of these too. Anyway, enough about that. We have to figure out a way to get them in the same room so they can work it out. But how? Ow, I just got a paper cut on this party invitation for Will and Grace.
Karen: Focus. We’re trying to get them in the same room together. Forget about this party they’re both invited to. Now, what do they both like?
Jack: Well, Will likes to be taller than everyone, and Grace likes to eat cake.
Karen: Where can we take them where there’ll be small people eating cake?
[takes a sip of wine]
Karen: Oh, shoot, I just spilled on this invitation to a child’s birthday party.
[pauses]
Karen: Hey, are you thinking what I’m thinking?
Jack: I don’t know, are you thinking what it would be like to have Spiderman spray his web on you?
Karen: Okay that’s just freaky.

—

Here is some more Karen awesomeness (I think I’m in love with Karen):

Karen: [to Gillian the intern] Hi, honey. Sit down!
Gillian: What’s going on, what’s happening, what’s this all about?
Karen: I’ve got something tough to tell you. Uh, I’m fabulous, okay? I’m an incredible dresser, I’ve got buckets of money, I’m a hoot and a half, and I’ve got a killer rack. Do you get what I’m saying?
Gillian: Not really.
Karen: Honey, you’re not me, and you never will be.
Gillian: [pointing to her chest] Is it the rack?
Karen: [laughing and shaking her head] “It’s a big part of it. Now, you’re never going to be me, but, you got a good chance to be Grace, and that’s nothing to sneeze at, honey, you shouldn’t throw it away so quickly.”
Gillian: But Grace, she’s just not us.
Karen: Bup-bupbupbupbupbup, watch your mouth, or I’ll wash it out with cheap vodka. That’s my little girl you’re talking about. Now, Grace is a damn good role model. She’s bright, she’s successful, she’s the worst dresser in the whole wide world, she’s talented and I look up to her. Honey, why else would I be here?
Gillian: You told me it’s because you hate being home with Stan and the kids.
Karen: [laughing and shaking her head] It’s a big part of it.
Gillian: Hey, can I still use the word “honey”?
Karen: What? Ohhhhhhhh no.

—

Anyway, I had to pause all this fun to call about 30 utilities, government departments, insurance and super companies, etc etc to cancel services and change addresses. I remember the last time I had to do this, it took me a couple months to recover. But I was in good spirits and confident I would not go through the hell I went through last time I attempted this ambitious mountainous task.

I was wrong.

I spent no less than 4 hours either on hold or being transferred or talking to the biggest morons I have ever had the pleasure of dealing with. How freakin hard can it be to pick up a phone, go through the security checks and then replace one address with another? Apparently, very difficult. I don’t blame the people I had to deal with today, I blame the Australian school system for putting these people into the real world unequipped to comprehend simple instructions or perform simple tasks.

The worst hour of the four hours was spent dealing with Optus. After waiting on the phone for 20min, I got through, only to find that the initial Optus staff member had transferred me to Sales and not to broadband disconnection. Another 15min later, I was able to go through the process to schedule my disconnect date for a couple weeks from now. I was very careful to emphasise the date for disconnection, and even made the monkey repeat the date so there would not be any confusion. I got off the phone and my internet had been disconnected. After another 15min on hold, I get through to a surprisingly competent staff member who looked at my file and said: “Yes, I can clearly see where he has written 5th April yet he’s disconnected it today. I’ll have to call you back once I sort it out.”

Sarah Jessica Parker where do these freakin morons come from. An hour later, I finally had my internet reconnected and the guy said I have to call back in and schedule the disconnection again. I’m so relieved at getting back online, I don’t even make a scene. Another 20 minutes later, including two line disconnections, I finally get the simple task of scheduling my broadband to be disconnected only one hour and a half after I dialled Optus for the first of about 17 times.

That was only the worst of a number of tilt-inducing exchanges with people who really shouldn’t be allowed to drive or have kids.

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On a brighter note, I’m gonna win just under 2k when Heather Mills’ leg falls off on Dancing With the Stars - thank you Bodog!

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another sick sporting clip…

I often wondered if this had ever been done. My rugby captain at ADFA was a total sicko athlete, and he once almost jumped a player who dropped the shoulder to tackle him but his boot clipped the tackler’s shoulder and he flipped over to the ground. I was watching from a few metres away and thought it was almost the most awesome thing I’d ever seen.

This is how it’s done - what a freak!

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Australia’s Next Top Model cycle 3…

Season 3 of Australia’s next top model is about to begin and I, for one, am very excited.

If Stephanie doesn’t win, the entire show is a rigged joke.

Chewing gum is hot.

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Tracy McGrady 13 points in 35 seconds…

After losing a sick amount of money when Pakistan threw the game overnight against the West Indies, I was trying to get square with Vos and put a big bet on the Indiana Pacers at around even money at half-time when they were 7pts up against favourites Timberwolves. Half-way through the third, the Pacers’ lead had blown out to 14 points, and I had pretty much locked up the win. However, never underestimate the ability of a crap team to lose a game. The Pacers scored 1 point in the first 8 minutes of the final quarter, and the Timberwolves went on a 20-3 run to steal the unwinnable game. The Pacers performance in the final quarter was just disgusting - they’ve now lost 10 games in a row.

We were talking about whether the Pacers could steal the game back 5 points down with around 30 seconds left, and my mate Scotty starts going on about Tracy McGrady scoring 13 points in the last 35 seconds of a game to win it, and I would have scoffed at this except Scotty is a NBA freak and he’s not prone to exaggeration. Scotty pulled it up on YouTube - you need to watch it. It’s one of the most amazing comeback performances in sporting history. Just insane….

The first clip is just a 2min highlight reel of the shots - below is an 8min version with all the drama - the looks on the faces of the Spurs players when the final buzzer goes is priceless…

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World Cup Fever……

The madness kicks off today in the Caribbean as the cricket world licks their lips at the most wide-open race in world cup history. The two favourites (Australia and South Africa) don’t have even an average spinner in their lineups, with South Africa relying on an all-out pace attack and Australia crossing its fingers hoping their superstar Symonds can recover from injury in time to save their campaign.

With the Caribbean pitches tipped to spin a lot, there is a outside chance Australia and South Africa will be making up the numbers if Murali, Kumble, Vettori and Kaneria have great tournaments.

South Africa generally go far and choke under the pressure in the semi’s, and the SA joke capitan Smith is making really lame jokes about his team’s record of choking. This one was the best from Smith: “It’s ridiculous to say we are chokers, unless we are eating spare ribs.” If this is what he comes up when he has time to think up a line, imagine how lame his sledges on the field would be - no wonder Australia smash them everytime it matters - even Vos can do better than that…

Australian captain Ponting is talking up his team’s chances and clearly loving the favouritism tag, but with his best player Symonds out injured, form batsman Hayden recovering from a broken foot, no spinners worth taking on the trip (I don’t know what Hogg does but he can’t spin the ball), and every single fast bowler in his lineup in a form slump, I’m not sure the favouritism is well-placed.

Pakistan are annoying as ever, hating the world and wanting the world to hate them. Despite their fat capitan speaking fluent English, he has decided to conduct all his tournament interviews in his native tongue, tilting the hundreds of English-speaking journalists, who have to listen through an interpreter, not that he ever says anything interesting anyway.

West Indies have talent but no discipline. Rumour has it the team was out late the night before they got belted by 9 wickets in a practice match. An amusing angle to this story is Lara’s stuttering defence/denial of this rumour - claiming he didn’t know about it but if it happened, he would think he would have heard about it. Or some pathetic jibberish like that. West Indies has the talent and team to be the first country to win the world cup on home soil, but they won’t. They are unprofessional jokers.

Sri Lanka don’t have the power hitters they had in 96 (remember Jayasuria and Kaluwitharana - those two little nutters changed one-day cricket for ever), but Murali is a sicko and will carry the team to the semi’s at least.

There hasn’t been much talk about India, and I think they could be the dark horse.

I’m putting my money on Sri Lanka and India. I think their chances are under-rated. I’ve put 700 today on Pakistan at 2.28 to beat the West Indies, as I think the West Indies are going to have a horror tournament. And Pakistan are full of hate, which can be a useful emotion in sport - I think they’ll get up today over some hungover West Indian players….

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Cricket fans in India and Pakistan are some of the most fanatic in the world. I read in a news article once that every time India loses a big game, the suicide rate spikes up that night. One fan has gotten global media coverage because he is attempting to sell his kidney to attend the World Cup and threatening to kill himself if he can’t find a buyer:
Indian fan looking for kidney buyer

Tarun Sharma, 23, said he would set himself on fire later this week if no one came forward to help him sell the organ.

“I will kill myself if I am denied a chance to watch the Indians play in the West Indies,” Sharma said.

“Anybody can survive with one kidney but you will never get the opportunity to watch India win the Cup in the West Indies.”

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